OMAN: ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP (2009-2010)

UNCLAS STATE 104654 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KTIP KCRM KWMN PHUM SMIG MU SUBJECT: OMAN: ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP (2009-2010) ¶1. (U) This is an action request (see para 5). ¶2. (U) The 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report rates countries as Tier 2 when host governments are not meeting the minimum standards to combat trafficking in persons (TIP) as defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA),but are making significant efforts to do so. Remaining on Tier 2, however, is not guaranteed; governments must continue to combat TIP and especially address areas that need further work. Tier 2 countries will move to Tier 1 if and when they evidence satisfaction of all of the minimum standards. Tier 2 countries are also subject to slipping to Tier 2 Watch List or Tier 3 if they do not continue to make significant efforts to meet the minimum standards from one year to the next. ¶3. (U) Please keep in mind the TIP Report measures host government efforts. To be useful for tier placement purposes, there should be a concrete role or tangible value-added by a host government in activities by NGOs, international organizations, or posts. ¶4. (U) The following explains steps the government needs to take in order to comply fully with the Minimum Standards for the elimination of trafficking, and therefore qualify for a Tier 1 ranking, and offers suggestions to address specific areas of concern highlighted in the 2009 TIP Report. Legal standards are excerpted from the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended. Implementation Principles are excerpted from guidance issued in 07 State 150188 (October 29, 2007) and are not specific to any country or region. Country-specific points are not exhaustive, but offer steps and possible ways to address specific areas of concern. The Department assesses government efforts each year. All governments must show concrete evidence of serious and sustained efforts in eliminating severe forms of trafficking from the previous year. Tier ranking determinations will be based on the government's efforts to comply with the Minimum Standards to Combat TIP during the April 2009 - March 2010 reporting period. ¶5. (U) Begin action request: Post is requested to explain to the host government the areas of specific concern noted in the TIP Report and why the government failed to meet the minimum standards (and thus did not meet the requirements for Tier 1 placement). Post may utilize the talking points in para 6 and offer steps in para 7 to the host government as possible ways to address specific areas of concern. While the list is not exhaustive, it should focus the host government on deficiencies in meeting the minimum standards and examples of ways to overcome them. As every year, the Department will weigh the government's level of support and participation in reported activities, as well as the efficacy and sustainability of government actions, in light of its resources and capabilities. ¶6. (U) Background Points: Begin talking points: -- The United States is committed to working with other countries to combat the global problem of human trafficking, in part because of the significant problem of human trafficking in our own country. -- The U.S. Government's Trafficking Victims Protection Act requires the State Department to submit an annual report to Congress on the status of foreign governments, efforts to combat trafficking in persons. -- We offer the following suggested actions to tackle specific shortcomings highlighted in the 2009 TIP Report. We believe these to be within the reasonable ability of your government to fulfill in the near-term and encourage you to take prompt action for a positive narrative in the interim assessment. We will reconsider your government,s tier placement when we conduct our annual full assessment for the 2009-2010 reporting period in early 2010. -- We would welcome the Government of Oman,s comments on these recommendations and any other ideas you might have to advance our common struggle against trafficking in persons. End talking points. ¶7. (SBU) Begin Action Guide and internal numbering: ¶1. Legal Framework: The government should criminalize trafficking in persons (TIP) and punish acts of such trafficking. (A) For knowing commissions of acts of trafficking, punishment should be prescribed that is sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately reflects the heinous nature of the offense. (B) For knowing commissions of acts of sex trafficking, punishment should be prescribed that is commensurate with that for grave crimes, such as forcible sexual assault. Implementation Guideline: At minimum, governments must criminalize and prescribe penalties for all forms of trafficking relevant in the country, including forced labor. This must include the elements of "severe forms of trafficking in persons" -- force, fraud, and coercion. Although desirable, this need not be accomplished through a comprehensive law, so long as relevant elements of trafficking, specifically including fraud/deception and coercion along with force, are covered by the country's laws. Consistent with the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, criminal penalties against acts of such trafficking should include a maximum of at least four years deprivation of liberty, or a more severe penalty. Sanctions for sex trafficking should be on par with rape. The prescribed penalties for sex trafficking crimes or trafficking involving rape, kidnapping or death should be substantially similar to those for rape, taking into account the full range of sentences available. COMPLIANCE: The government is fully compliant as reported in the 2009 TIP Report. ¶2. Prosecution and other Law Enforcement Efforts: The government should show serious and sustained efforts to combat TIP by vigorously investigating and prosecuting TIP acts, and convicting and sentencing persons responsible for such acts. (A) The government must provide data regarding investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, consistent with its capacity to do so, or it shall be presumed not to have vigorously investigated, prosecuted, convicted or sentenced such acts. Implementation Guideline: All governments, consistent with their capacity to do so, are required to submit full comprehensive data on trafficking enforcement actions, including length of sentences actually imposed on convicted traffickers, as evidence of their vigorous law enforcement efforts. Imposed sentences should involve significant jail time, with a majority of cases resulting in sentences on the order of one year's imprisonment or more, but taking into account the severity of an individual's involvement in trafficking, imposed sentences for other grave crimes, and the judiciary's right to hand down punishments consistent with that country's laws. Convictions obtained under other criminal laws and statutes can be counted as trafficking if the government verifies that they involve trafficking offenses. COMPLIANCE: The government was partially compliant as reported in the 2009 TIP Report. Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded: -- In March 2009, the government charged 13 suspects with bringing foreign women into Oman as their wives and then transiting them to another country to engage in prostitution. Eleven defendants were sentenced to seven years, imprisonment. Recommended measures to bring the country into full compliance with Minimum Standards: The Government of Oman did not report any prosecutions of labor trafficking offenses in 2008 or early 2009. -- Vigorously investigate and prosecute labor trafficking offenses, and convict and sentence trafficking offenders. Provide law enforcement data about these actions. -- Develop a plan for providing training on the Law Combating Human Trafficking (Royal Decree No. 126/2008) and its provisions to law enforcement and social welfare officials, including judges, lawyers, police, immigration officers, and social workers. -- Consider instituting training on human trafficking as a standard part of the mandatory training program for new police and border guards. Ensure that graduating law enforcement officials can distinguish between human trafficking and smuggling; have developed skills in interviewing suspected victims of trafficking; are aware of procedures for transferring victims to the care of NGOs or other social service providers; and understand how to properly report and document the crime. ¶3. Victim Protection and Assistance: The government should demonstrate serious and sustained efforts to combat TIP by protecting TIP victims and encouraging their assistance in the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers. Protection should include: (A) provisions for legal alternatives to victims' removal to countries in which they would face retribution or hardship. (B) ensuring that victims are not inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized solely for unlawful acts that were committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Implementation Guideline: Critical factors considered in whether a country fully satisfies this part of the minimum standards are: (1) Formal, systematic screening procedures that proactively identify victims and guide law enforcement and other front line responders in the process of victim identification. (2) Shelter, health care, and counseling should be available to victims, allowing them to recount their trafficking experience to trained social counselors and law enforcement with minimal pressure. Shelter and care may be provided in cooperation with NGOs, but part of the government's responsibility includes funding and referral to NGOs providing services. To the best extent possible, trafficking victims should not be held in immigration detention centers, or other detention facilities. Factors also considered and strongly recommended for favorable placement are: (1) Victim/witness protection, rights and confidentiality; i.e., governments should ensure that victims are provided with legal and other assistance and that, consistent with its domestic law, proceedings are not prejudicial to victims' rights, dignity or psychological well-being; and that victims are provided information in a language they understand. (2) Source and destination countries share responsibility in ensuring the safe, humane and, to the extent possible, voluntary repatriation/reintegration for victims. At a minimum, destination countries should contact a competent governmental body, NGO or IO in relevant source country to ensure that trafficked persons who return to their country of origin are provided with assistance and support necessary to their well-being. Trafficking victims should not be subjected to deportations or forced returns without safeguards or other measures to reduce the risk of hardship, retribution, or re-trafficking. COMPLIANCE: The government was partially compliant as reported in the 2009 TIP Report. Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded: -- The government provided 13 female trafficking victims shelter at a Royal Oman Police &accommodation center.8 -- In December 2008, the government instituted a mechanism for identifying trafficking victims among migrant workers employed by private companies. Recommended measures to bring the country into full compliance with Minimum Standards: -- Complete construction and begin operation of a shelter that provides appropriate protection services to both labor and sex trafficking victims, including medical, psychological, and appropriate legal assistance. -- Establish systematic policies and procedures for officials to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable groups (for example: women and girls in prostitution, and illegal migrants),refer victims to appropriate care facilities, and ensure victims are not punished for unlawful acts directly resulting from their being trafficked. ¶4. Prevention: The government should demonstrate serious and sustained efforts to combat TIP by adopting measures to prevent TIP, such as: (A) steps to inform and educate the public, including potential victims, about the causes and consequences of TIP, (B) measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and for participation in international sex tourism by nationals of the country, (C) measures to ensure that its nationals who are deployed abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar mission do not engage in or facilitate severe forms of trafficking in persons or exploit victims of such trafficking, (D) measures to prevent the use of forced labor or child labor in violation of international standards. Implementation Guideline: The government should provide/fund a hotline or similar mechanism that offers victims and potential victims assistance/information about TIP. Per the Minimum Standards, countries should, for example where applicable: (1) Reduce demand for commercial sex acts: Implement or support some form of visible awareness campaign that educates the clients of the sex trade (and potential sex trafficking victims) if the country has a significant sex trafficking problem, or a campaign that targets those who form the demand for victims of forced labor about the nature of the relevant form of TIP. Nations with legalized prostitution should make additional efforts to proactively identify TIP victims among those in prostitution in the legalized sex trade. This includes the systematic and sensitive screening of persons in the legalized sex trade. (2) Address child sex tourism: Countries that have a significant number of nationals traveling abroad as child sex tourists should undertake an awareness campaign that targets tourists traveling to known child sex tourism destinations. (3) Address trafficking and exploitation committed by multinational peacekeepers: Governments with more than 100 troops on peacekeeping or other similar missions abroad should provide anti-TIP training for these troops (directly or through multilateral efforts),and should investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute any allegations of trafficking crimes or crimes of facilitating trafficking or exploiting trafficking victims committed by these troops abroad and referred to it by the UN or another competent organization. COMPLIANCE: The government was partially compliant as reported in the 2009 TIP Report. Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded: -- The government established a National Committee for Combating Trafficking in Persons and convened its first meeting. -- The government hired 94 additional male and female labor inspectors and funded the travel of ILO trainers to Oman to provide additional training to the labor inspectorate and Ministry of Manpower officials. -- The government launched a public campaign to educate workers, employers, and the general public on labor laws and potential abuses. Recommended measures to ensure that the country continues to fully comply with Minimum Standards: -- Enact and enforce penalties against employers who withhold their employees, passports. For the offense of withholding passports as a means of coercing someone into or keeping someone in a form of labor or service, criminal penalties (i.e., imprisonment) should be imposed. For the offense of withholding passports with no element of coercion, either administrative or criminal penalties could be administered. -- Expand previous awareness raising efforts into a nationwide campaign that fosters public awareness among all levels of government officials and private citizens. The focus should include not only general public awareness of human trafficking as both a local and global phenomenon, but also information that will specifically help victims identify government or NGO sources of assistance. This could be carried out in a variety of locally appropriate ways. For example: a) Air brief informational spots on local radio stations or create opportunities for public officials or appear on radio talk shows; b) Place opinion editorials (op eds) on trafficking in persons in local newspapers; c) Sensitize journalists to trafficking in persons to enable more in-depth and sensitive coverage of exploitation within the country; and d) Display posters in public places depicting the dangers of human trafficking, how to report a case, or where to go to seek assistance. ¶5. Corruption and Official Complicity: The government should vigorously investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence public officials who participate in or facilitate TIP, and take all appropriate measures against officials who condone such trafficking. (A) This should include nationals of the country who are deployed abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar mission who engage in or facilitate severe forms of trafficking in persons or exploit victims of such trafficking. (B) The government must provide data regarding such investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, or it shall be presumed not to have vigorously investigated, prosecuted, convicted, or sentenced such acts. Implementation Principle: Governments, consistent with their capacity to do so, must provide full comprehensive data on actions taken against TIP related complicity. Information on general government corruption does not satisfy this minimum standard, except in cases in which specific cases of complicity are not reported by the government or known to the USG, but where there is a reasonable probability of such complicity within the wider context of generalized corruption in that country. COMPLIANCE: There were no specific cases of complicity reported by the government in the 2009 TIP Report. Recommendation for measures to ensure that the country fully complies with Minimum Standards: -- Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking-related corruption at all levels of law enforcement. Share comprehensive data on investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of complicit officials, and the lengths of sentences imposed on those convicted, if specific cases of complicity have occurred. End Action Guide and internal numbering. ¶8. (U) The Department appreciates Post's continued efforts to address trafficking in persons issues. CLINTON